Museum visits have plunged by almost three million in the last year - but the National Coal Mining Museum is bucking the trend.

New figures show 2.9 million less visits were made to museums across the country.

But visits to the National Coal Mining Museum near Grange Moor rose by more than 8,000. It attracted 133,260 visitors in 2015, an increase of 6.8% compared with the 124,727 visits in 2014. It continues the trend of increasing attendances following its 116,132 visits in 2013.

In December it marked the closure of Britain’s last working deep-coal mine, Kellingley Colliery in West Yorkshire, by purchasing the final tonne of coal. It will be exhibited in the museum’s permanent collection and will go on public display.

Figures from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have revealed the number of visitors to each museum sponsored by the department up to the end of December last year.

WATCH BELOW: Lego exhibition at the National Coal Mining Museum

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Attendances at the Media Museum in Bradford increased by 1.8% to 441,000 in 2015 while the Royal Armouries in Leeds saw visitor numbers drop by 8% to 218,535.

In total 47.9 million people visited museums sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2015, a decrease of 2.9 million - or 5.7% - compared to 2014.

The British Museum in central London attracted the largest number of visitors last year with 6.82 million attendances in 2015. However, the Tate group of museums as a whole beat this figure with 6.84 million visitors.